GREENVILLE, S.C. — Rep. Mick Mulvaney on Saturday bluntly told conservative activists that the Republican presidential nominee in 2016 must appeal to younger voters and minorities.
The Republican congressman said that nominee shouldn’t moderate or pander for votes. But Mulvaney, who represents a district here in the uber-conservative upstate region of South Carolina, said a Republican presidential nominee who wins over reliable GOP white voters like them but fails to expand the party’s appeal will lose the general election.
“The largest voting demographic group in the 2016 election will be people between the ages of 18 and 30. The fastest growing demographic group will be Hispanics,” Mulvaney said. “Look around you in this room: Convincing you is not the issue. Who can convince somebody else? Today, ask yourselves: Who can talk to those folks?”
Mulvaney, among the most conservative Republicans in the House, spoke to conservative activists who packed a gleaming performing arts center in downtown Greenville for the South Carolina Freedom Summit, hosted by Citizens United and Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.
The all-day event was to feature nearly a dozen Republican presidential contenders, who flocked to the Palmetto State to make their case to GOP voters who will go to the polls third in the 2016 primary campaign, after Iowa and New Hampshire. South Carolina also happens to be the first to host the nominating contest of the primary campaign in the Republican-dominated South.
The state is among the most red in the nation, with the GOP controlling both U.S. Senate seats, every House seat but one and all levels of state government. Mulvaney said Republicans need to nominate a candidate to take on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton who can effectively make the case for conservative governance to voters not necessarily inclined to vote GOP.
“We’re looking for someone who can not only tell you what you want to hear, but can tell the rest of the country what they need to hear,” Mulvaney said.
